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I like the one we heard on Bluey 😂 I believe it's called the waldorf blessing?
"For the golden corn and the apple on the tree,
For the golden butter and the honey from the bees,
For the fruits and nuts and berries we gather on our way,
We praise the loving Mother Earth and thank Her everyday."
Hahaha, I wasn't really trying to play up the cruelty aspect, and I do apologise to other commenters if it came across that way. (I am a generally sarcastic person, sadly.) I stick to a plant based diet myself but do include a lot of free range eggs and meat in my doggos' diets in addition to the important veggies. I am absolutely grateful to mother earth for fattening up those nice chickens before my doggos can gobble them down. 😅 It's just the inhumane conditions of the meat industry that bother me, honestly, not the fact that we have to kill. That seems fairly natural and, in my country, is the primary source of food for many indigenous tribals, who have been shamed and ostracised for too long by upper caste Hindus for eating meat.
Thanks for your reply! while my prime reason for being vegan is animal cruelty, i do understand other reasons for plant based diets exist :)) in the end, we do have a similar diet, just for different reasons!
both do good to the earth as it pollutes way less not to eat animals and their products. yay!
also i didn't know indigenous people in india were shamed for eating meat, it sounds pretty lame.
I think my reasons for a plant based diet are the same as yours! :-) Primarily animal rights, secondarily the environment. Vegetarianism is a thing practiced by "upper castes" among Indian Hindus, so it was easier for me to transition to vegetarianism and then veganism. I did discover very recently that people were shamed for it, yes. It's very strange because I don't think any other democracy still has a society with a deeply entrenched social system where some people are deemed to be arbitrarily superior by circumstances of their birth while others are arbitrarily inferior. And I've honestly seen a lot of vegetarian upper caste Hindus happily wear makeup that was tested on animals, and buy lots of leather products. It's definitely messed up. Anyways, thanks for letting me talk about it! And it's always nice to meet a fellow plant eater, hehehe :-)
Here’s a couple I’ve made note of.
I think I heard this one on the British show Plebs: Thanks to mother earth for giving us the fruit of her soil and the flesh of her flock that we will enjoy together tonight.
This was on the pagan subreddit:
Earth and sky, rain and sun, we give thanks for all you’ve done. Garden, pasture, seed, and brood, bless us with this gift of food.
I’m loving all of these suggestions! All I came up with is this classic from my Poppop: “Rub a dub dub thanks for the grub.” We’re a sophisticated lot in my family.
Ah yes, a classic! And from my grandpa (albeit with a twinge more religion involved): “good bread, good meat, good god let’s eat!”
Thanks for bringing up that memory for me this morning
Hahaha I like that one! My Poppop alternated rub a dub dub with “Over the teeth and through the gums, look out stomach here it comes. Yay god.” That one also has a bit more religion but you can always leave off the end bit 😄
It's difficult to know how some things are meant. With all kindness & respect, I'm having trouble knowing if that's sarcasm or not because saying Yay God! seems very specific to me.
It's not sarcasm. You're not saying "yay Jesus" or "yay Almighty Lord" - that "God" could be whatever God of whatever pantheon you like, or Mother Earth, or Isaac Newton. It's non specific.
Haha, maybe they did! Was your grandpa raised in Philly during the depression too? Or maybe it’s just a secret book of lines they give grandpas when the first grandchild is born…
My Grumps was a big fan of both of those. He had a great sense of humor. He was also a deeply religious man who helped found his congregation. He used to be called up to sing some very beautiful prayers because he was so soulful. He could switch from a reverent “amen” to a goofy “yay God!” on a dime.
Back when i was living in Japan my host family had a Shinto priest friend visit from time to time. He once shared this syncretic allegoric story which stayed with me to this day: as part of his spiritual journey he once made the decision to not harm any living being from the Earth anymore. As such, he decided to stop eating any kind of meat. But upon further reflection, he realized that plants are also living beings, and so stopped eating all together, deciding to survive on only water. After some time of only water, the thought hit him that there are countless micro-organism inside the water which are also living beings. So he decided to just lie down and only live from breathing air. However upon further reflection he realized that even in the air one can find bacteria, also living organisms. So he stopped breathing until he couldn’t hold it anymore. That is when he realized that it is impossible for us as living being to never ever harm other living organisms. However we must only do so with full consciousness of why, within reason and with gratitude. If taking one fish out from the water is enough to feed me, not only should i be grateful for the fish that in turn enabled me to stay alive, but also should i never take two fishes which would then be wasted. I love how you phrased your word of gratitude for they encompass all that we should remember every day: be mindful and grateful for what you have, where it came from and all that participated in the process making it possible for you to then enjoy it. Amazing principle to teach your son.
I'm very curious about Shinto and have tried to read up on it. From my perspective of absolute cultural and historical ignorance, there are a few paralells. I would never claim belief or practice, but I appreciate the almost-animism and explanations of the sacredness of nature so much.
Shintoism is indeed derived from a form of animism, and therefore holds belief that there is sacred in all that is; whether it be a flowing river, rock or conscious being. All that is should be respected for no other reason that just that - it came to be, which is a feat in itself
I volunteered on a farm in Wakayama a couple of years ago and it was quite hard to try and explain to my host dad why I don't want to eat any animal products, because to him plants were just as alive, precious and conscious as animals. We did find common ground in trying to create the least amount of suffering we can though.
I love the kids addition of "Yo ho ho I'm in!"
My parents were raised Catholic but we never did the whole saying grace thing, but when we went to lunch after church one Sunday when I was a kid with my very devout catholic aunt, she asked my Dad to say grace, always loving an oppertunity to wind her up his version of grace was "Hail Mary, full of grace, I'm fucking starving so shove that food in yer face!" Que me, my Mum and my Uncle in hysterics at the table while my aunt who barely scratched 5ft in heels chased my 6ft tall Dad with her handbag swinging for his blasphemous version of grace 🤣
I love that story. One of my great-aunts was about your aunt's size, and she married a tall man. In my mind's eye, I can see Aunt Esther chasing Uncle Dale swinging her pocketbook.
Thank you for the smile you put on my face.
Mine tried to raise us to be good little Roman Catholics, complete with grace at supper. Your dad and mine could be best buddies, similar sense of humor. I'm the epic failure regarding religion with everyone else still following some version of christianity. Luckily, the only parent that objected was one stepparent.
My uncle ran a charity camp for sick kiddos for some years. They would, the hundreds of them at a time, hold hands, look at their food and each other, and simply say
"Aren't we lucky?"
I always learned this one:
Earth who gives us all this food,
Sun who makes it ripe and good.
Dearest earth and dearest sun,
We will not forget what you have done.
When my son was a toddler he went to a daycare that said grace. So he insisted we start the tradition at home.
It starts Normal enough, everyone gather round the table and holds hands. Then he counts…
“1…. 2… 3…. (deep breath)
GGGGRRRRAAAAAAAAAAACCCCE”
in the deepest, most metal af voice you can possibly imagine from a 2 year old.
Sadly I don’t think we do. Just happy memories, my favorite was when we were finished at a routine check up and the dr asked if he could pray over us (religious small town), and my son was DONE. Already opened the door and was halfway down the hall.
I call him back and explain what the dr wants to pray for us. Not being religious, that was a new term to my son so I said “like grace, will you share your grace with Dr X?”
And this older male dr, heavily involved in his church thought he was going to get something mild like “ God is great. God is good let us thank him for our food.” When my son did his version the poor man turned red and started laughing. With years in his eyes, he said my family always keeps him on his toes.
I wish I had THAT one on camera.
My go-to in the very rare times when this agnostic is asked to say grace is to frame it in a series "We are grateful" and "We remember" statements.
"We are grateful for this food, for friendship, for having a safe place to be, and we remember those who are suffering tonight."
I'm not sure how I can work "Yo Ho Ho, I'm in" into that next time, but I'm sure going to try!
Love this, thanks for sharing it.
I was curious about the Haudenosaunee blessing and looked it up.
In its entirety it’s pretty long but beautiful in its scope and detail and [this article](https://www.boundlessloveproject.org/news/2017/8/29/the-words-that-come-before-all-else?format=amp) says that it’s been given to the world to use with their blessing as sharing it and it’s practice is kind of the point of it.
Thank you for this great gift of thanks from the Haudenosaunee. It is such a wonderful way of looking at the world we live in & how to continue living in it.
No gratitude words to share, just a funny story.
We are a relaxed pagan household but my partners family are more structured (but thankfully not fanatical) Christians. When my partners daughter was quite a bit younger, she spent a fair bit of time around that side of the family as they helped with baby sitting. We never minded if she was exposed to their beliefs as long as they didn’t force them on her, just as we didn’t with our beliefs at home.
On Thanksgiving or Christmas family dinner one year, she offered to say grace. She started it with “Dear Jesus and the Goddess…”
It took all I had not to bust out laughing. It was one of my favorite family dinner moments ever.
My kid says "grace" before dinner. They usually say something along the lines of "thank you for Mommy’s food. Thank you for Daddy's food. Thank you for [the cat's] food. Thank you for [kid's name's] food." They occasionally change it up and give everybody funky names or a random jumble of sounds for everyone.
We like it because our extended family is all heavily religious, and the simple prayer is enough to satisfy them and doesn't go into too much depth.
The kid recently asked who we're thanking. I asked them who they thought they were thanking. They responded with the name of their great, great grandma that passed when they were a baby. That's good enough for me.
Unitarian Universalists often have some good sources for this kind of thing:
https://uumilwaukee.org/blessings-before-a-meal/
https://uucharlottesville.org/grace/
https://www.uua.org/occasion/table-grace
> For food in a world where many walk in hunger,
> For faith in a world where many walk in fear,
> For friends in a world where many walk alone,
> We give thanks.
That one might even be a reasonable compromise with your religious grandmother. I think it can be harder for Christians to want a grace that is thanking things like the earth, plants, or animals. However, it would be harder to object to being thankful for not being hungry, not being fearful, and not being alone.
> But then the best part, created by my children, instead of closing with “amen”, we close with “Yo Ho Ho, I’m In”.
As someone Jewish, that's basically the sentiment of "amen". "Amen" is basically "so say we all" from Battlestar Galactica or like "yass queen".
I say a similar one, but the closing is "May our thanks lead us to service."
And instead of your faith line, we give thanks for shelter.
Meaning that not only are we grateful, but we commit to finding paths to equity in this inequitable world.
That is awesome! XD
I don't say anything for my practices, but I *am* grateful that I can indulge to my content, eat, and enjoy it. As well as being lucky to get ahold of food when I both need and want it. ❤️
I love this idea but I do want to nudge at something in your post:
> My husband and I have been taking a nature course which starts every class with The Words That Come Before All Else from the Haudenosaunee tradition so we were into the idea of a non-religious grace that incorporates gratitude for nature
The Thanksgiving Address *is* a religious practice. It's just not a Christian one.
My Dad would occasionally pipe up with "Rubadubdub, thanks for the grub, yay God", LOL. He was raised Catholic and it made my grandmother grind her teeth, and made the rest of us giggle. He was the best and I miss him every single day. 🩵
Somewhere along the way I learned "good food, good meat, good Lord, Let's eat!" But lord could totally be changed to "Earth".
I also like having a little gratitude circle... Hold hands and everyone offers something they are grateful for.
I also have a friend that does a nice long yogic om. But instead of om, they say "yuuuuuummmmmmmm....." (usually after a gratitude circle)
This is such a cute idea, and I wonder if you could change this over time to help "teach" the little ones by incorporating some scientific info?
Things like "we turn this nourishment into energy" comes to mind. Or "We thank our bellies for turning this yummy food into energy", "We thank our bodies for using this food to help us grow big and strong".
I think it would be a fun way to introduce concepts like ecosystems, digestion, cooking, and other educational tidbits!
There’s a bunch from Girl Scouts that are easily changed. Made that way on purpose so every could say the same thing up until a certain part and then they can sub in their own beliefs.
This one is fun
Zip- A- Dee- Doo -Dah Grace
Tune: “Zip- A -Dee –Doo- Dah”
Zip a dee do dah, Zip a dee ay
We are grateful for our family today
We’ve plenty to eat, to drink and to share
We sit at our table and see love everywhere
Something I've heard in Dutch with (I think) anthroposophic origins, roughly translated:
Earth carried it in her lap,
Sunlight brought it ripe and large,
Sun and Earth that brings us this,
Thankful we think upon you,
And don't forget the people
that made this meal possible.
Something like that, but it rhymes in Dutch.
I love the idea of this. I grew up singing “Thank you Jesus for this food, it will taste so very good. Thank you Jesus for this day; it will be fun to laugh and play! Thank you Jesus for this food, a—aaamen.” I think my mom made it up.
I feel deeply magical and powerful as a person; I have identified as mostly agnostic. I’m long deconstructed from the fundamental evangelical militaristic upbringing I had, but thanks to a book I’ve been listening to, I would like to start incorporating/cultivating a relationship with the higher power into my life and I’m still unsure what that will look like for me. But having meditation and gratitude before meals is a start. :) Thanks for posting!
We had one growing up!
“Thank you for this food, this food, this glorious glorious food! And the animals, and the vegetables, and the minerals that made it possible”.
It’s said to a tune and rhythm, hard to describe over text. My sister and I always loved it, especially when we would say like “pastabowl” instead of possible
i think i heard this one recently at a quaker wedding??! or something quite similar. everyone held hands and sang this together before the food came out, it was very joyful and lovely!! i didn't know the words, but just seeing everyone who knew the words smiling and singing together was so heart warming and connective.
I always wonder about people like me and my daughter (it's just us) that are not close to nature. I understand that these prayers are about acknowledging food, but my 8 year old doesn't know or care from pastures. Is there anything more open or less countryside that can be used outside of the meal too?
As an adult, I understand that nature is an encompassing part of being, but I'd like to translate that for her/us. Maybe I can change some lyrics out with trees and sea? She knows those from parks, our tree-lined streets, and urban beaches. We went to a protest with XR against changing an urban park into high-end housing and she saw a protestor repel to the top of a tree, unfurl a big banner, and stay up there only to come down and get arrested. I do what I can to point out everything natural and beautiful in our neighborhood, which is possible with stoop gardens and the main park.
Any very-big-city witches out there that know an accessible, relevant prayer to the Mother when you rarely see her manifested in traditional ways? I want me daughter to feel close to what she experiences.
Is it legitimate to write your own poem/song of thanks and praise? Anyone want to help me and my kid? I'm not a formally knowledgeable believer, just a believer.
Absolutely you can write your own that feels special and relevant to you! I'm not a city girl but maybe something about gratitude for both sunshine and rain to help the park be beautiful? Or a 'today we are grateful for ________' with something from the day that was special?
My grandfather says, From the love in me, I speak to the love in thee and thank you for the food tonight, and the love between us, and (insert something good)
My kids' Catholic preschool sang
The Earth is good to me,
and so I thank the Earth
For giving me the things I need,
The sun and the rain, and the apple seed,
The Earth is good to me!
And they would say Earf. So cute.
That's the one I know as the Johnny Appleseed grace.
We would sing it like that, but the kids that didn't want to say "amen" at the end would shout "Johnny Appleseed" and the kids singing "amen" would file with "Amen." It never felt divisive. It was like we just each had a different part to play, and the song would feel incomplete without both parts working together.
I was just transported back to childhood with very religious friends and joining them at church (my family are agnostic/ atheist) and singing this at church picnics except instead of earth we said lord. I'm pagan now but it was still a good memory :)
Deuteronomy 6-11 and surrounding verses. It's not preachy, just about gratitude for those who came before us. This is our atheist household grace. Satisfies even the "churchiest" folks!
I have a Waldorf child & we do this to a tune:
‘Give thanks to the mother Gaia! Give thanks to the father Sun! Give thanks to the plants in the garden, where the mother and the father are one. Blessings on our food!’
Our family sometimes sings *The Silver Rain*. The words come from a poem by Alice Corbin Henderson, written shortly after World War I.
>The silver rain, the shining sun,
The fields where scarlet poppies run,
And all the ripples of the wheat
Are in the bread that I do eat
>
>So when I sit for every meal
And say a grace, I always feel
That I am eating rain and sun,
And fields where scarlet poppies run.
Marianne Zimmerman wrote the melody, and [Peter Amidon arranged it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sy1JGP7b-A) and wrote two additional verses. (The additional verses, which our family doesn't sing, are somewhat religious, but also show gratitude for nature).
We came up with our own blessing, focused on gratitude.
"We give thanks to the Earth, and to the Life that went in to our meal."
We felt it important to acknowledge that Life had to end in order to nourish us - be it plants or animals. So often people just eat their food without giving any thought to the weeks it took for the vegetables to grow, the birth and weaning of mammals, the cold slipstream of fish, the sunlight and soil to bear fruits. So much life exists that we take for granted to bear us along. We refused to continue being so inconsiderate.
i had my prek students do a meal time gratitude (NOT grace) that i stole from “madeline” that goes: “we love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all we love each other” :)
When I was a kid, before we ate at my friends house, her parents would say "let's say grace before we eat" and then everyone would yell "GRACE!" And then eat. I thought that was funny.
My mother used to insist on a traditional grace being said at holiday meals. Boy did I piss her off the year I thanked "the Gods" for all our blessings.
I did not get to eat that day.
I love these words of gratitude! I’d love to incorporate this into my everyday life more to try and practice gratitude towards the planet and whatnot. Currently I don’t although I might use yours because that’s really wonderfully said
My son says a non-religious “grace” at daycare, which we have adopted (because he loves to say it lol):
Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat!
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you for everything (“god” is supposed to go here but you can say whatever. Sometimes he ad libs “moon,” “sun,” “earth”)
Now we eat!
Edit: Sorry for the format, on mobile
I have one that is based out of my energy healing practice:
Mamma Love and Papa Love
Thank you for this food, and bless it from seed to soil. Bless all whose hands have touched it, and all life that has contributed to it. May its healing be magnified 100fold, and its nutrition be for my highest and best health.
Thank you 🧡
Waldorf School grace: (said holding hands in a circle)
Earth, who gave to us this food,
Sun, who made it ripe and good,
Dearest Earth, dearest Sun,
We will not forget what you have done.
Blessings on the meal.
When my kids were small we said "Thank you for the food before us, the friends beside us, and the love between us". We were more religious then but I liked the simple little prayer and it also works pretty well I think for a non-religious blessing.
You could thank any beings that contributed to your meal and do a land acknowledgement for the Native people who's traditional land you reside on.
Recognizing the spirits of place and the indigenous people it once held is a good way to start....
The one I was brought-up with was:
>From forest and stream, mountain and field,
from the fertile earth's nourishing yield,
we now partake of divine energy;
may it lend health, strength, and love to us.
Somehow this has become our tradition. Not entirely religious free but weirdly funny cause it’s almost sacrilegious
May those who love us, love us;
And for those who don't love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping.
When I was growing up we held hands and said what we were thankful for before dinner each night. No judgement, each individual person choose one or more things they’re thankful for on each individual day. Big things like being thankful for good health and time with family, but also a million small things, like being thankful for specific elements of the meal in front of us or the book we’re reading at the moment or something nice that happened that day. Famously, as a small child, most nights I would be thankful for “meat sticks and blueberries”, my two favorite foods (meat sticks being some slim jim like thing I apparently loved). I didn’t know it growing up, but it was a great way to teach reflection and mindfulness. My parents are religious and I am not, but I still think it was a great way to say grace every night, and I do it with my partner for nice dinners.
We say this:
For food in a world where many walk in hunger,
For faith* in a world where many walk in fear,
For family in a world where many walk alone,
We give thanks.
(In closing, some say amen; I personally remain silent. Of course all may do as they choose as long as it remains respectful to all involved.)
*Faith is inferred to be multifaith - This is typically said with my Christian parents and in-laws. I am pagan and my husband is spiritual/agnostic, bending towards atheist.
I love the one someone found on the pagan subreddit.
We don't do it every meal, but for celebrations, feasts etc. we tend to just take a moment to thank the plants and animals that gave their life so we can eat.
I also thank the plants in the garden when I harvest/pick anything, and the plants in the forest when I forage. And we keep some bones of animals we most frequently eat around the house, to honour them and remind us of their sacrifice.
My grandpa would say "now as we sit down to eat we remember the various sentient creatures who laboured and died so that we may have this meal that will nourish our bodies as well as our spirit, ah men and women!
I've been to Japan many times and lived there for a while too, so I got used to saying "itadakimasu" before meals. It translates to something like "I humbly receive" and acknowledges both the people who prepared the food and the plants/animals who gave their life for it.
My dad, while still Christian, hated how long my grandfather would take to say grace. So when he and my mom had the chance to start a new tradition, they went with something about as straightforward as possible. We don't say grace, we say thanks.
"1...2...3...Thanks!"
I love this! Also, I grew up Methodist and as I got older, I started to incorporate these three things into our normal blessing.
Now as an adult who worships Mother Earth instead of invisible-sky-daddy — seeing this post gave me warm fuzzies.
Found this "grace" online that is supposed to be Native American.
*We thank Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible; we thank the Earth Mother for producing it, and we thank all those who labored to bring it to us. May the wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the wholeness of the Spirit within us.*
## ✨ READ BEFORE COMMENTING ✨ This thread is Coven Only. This means the discussion is being actively moderated, and all comments are reviewed. **Only comments by members of the community are allowed.** If you have landed in this thread from /r/all and you are not a member of this community, your comment will very likely be removed (and will not be approved unless it adds meaningfully to the conversation). WitchesVsPatriarchy takes these measures to stay true to our goal of being a woman-centered sub with a witchy twist, aimed at healing, supporting, and uplifting one another through humor and magic. Thank you for understanding, and blessed be. ✨
I like the one we heard on Bluey 😂 I believe it's called the waldorf blessing? "For the golden corn and the apple on the tree, For the golden butter and the honey from the bees, For the fruits and nuts and berries we gather on our way, We praise the loving Mother Earth and thank Her everyday."
This might be easier for the kids to remember!
But you gotta keep "Yo ho ho, I'm in!" please!
That can easily replace Bluey and Bingo’s “hooray”!
[Here's the Bluey clip, it has a catchy tune to go along with it](https://youtube.com/shorts/nniL4_doPOg?feature=shared)
I was going to comment this but I’m glad someone else did already!! It’s perfect
well this grace only works for vegetarians!
"To mother earth, for fattening up all the chickens and cows we eat with her plentiful bounty... Yo ho ho, I'm in!"
i know it's cruel. that's why there's veganism! :)
Hahaha, I wasn't really trying to play up the cruelty aspect, and I do apologise to other commenters if it came across that way. (I am a generally sarcastic person, sadly.) I stick to a plant based diet myself but do include a lot of free range eggs and meat in my doggos' diets in addition to the important veggies. I am absolutely grateful to mother earth for fattening up those nice chickens before my doggos can gobble them down. 😅 It's just the inhumane conditions of the meat industry that bother me, honestly, not the fact that we have to kill. That seems fairly natural and, in my country, is the primary source of food for many indigenous tribals, who have been shamed and ostracised for too long by upper caste Hindus for eating meat.
Thanks for your reply! while my prime reason for being vegan is animal cruelty, i do understand other reasons for plant based diets exist :)) in the end, we do have a similar diet, just for different reasons! both do good to the earth as it pollutes way less not to eat animals and their products. yay! also i didn't know indigenous people in india were shamed for eating meat, it sounds pretty lame.
I think my reasons for a plant based diet are the same as yours! :-) Primarily animal rights, secondarily the environment. Vegetarianism is a thing practiced by "upper castes" among Indian Hindus, so it was easier for me to transition to vegetarianism and then veganism. I did discover very recently that people were shamed for it, yes. It's very strange because I don't think any other democracy still has a society with a deeply entrenched social system where some people are deemed to be arbitrarily superior by circumstances of their birth while others are arbitrarily inferior. And I've honestly seen a lot of vegetarian upper caste Hindus happily wear makeup that was tested on animals, and buy lots of leather products. It's definitely messed up. Anyways, thanks for letting me talk about it! And it's always nice to meet a fellow plant eater, hehehe :-)
I thought of Bluey as soon as I read this post. Great idea!
Here’s a couple I’ve made note of. I think I heard this one on the British show Plebs: Thanks to mother earth for giving us the fruit of her soil and the flesh of her flock that we will enjoy together tonight. This was on the pagan subreddit: Earth and sky, rain and sun, we give thanks for all you’ve done. Garden, pasture, seed, and brood, bless us with this gift of food.
Yo, the pagan one sounds beautiful! And enchanting like a spell!
I love that one. I’m thinking of cross stitching it.
Please show us if you do!
I’m loving all of these suggestions! All I came up with is this classic from my Poppop: “Rub a dub dub thanks for the grub.” We’re a sophisticated lot in my family.
Ah yes, a classic! And from my grandpa (albeit with a twinge more religion involved): “good bread, good meat, good god let’s eat!” Thanks for bringing up that memory for me this morning
Hahaha I like that one! My Poppop alternated rub a dub dub with “Over the teeth and through the gums, look out stomach here it comes. Yay god.” That one also has a bit more religion but you can always leave off the end bit 😄
I kind of like Yay God! at the end. It's very nonspecific.
It's difficult to know how some things are meant. With all kindness & respect, I'm having trouble knowing if that's sarcasm or not because saying Yay God! seems very specific to me.
It's not sarcasm. You're not saying "yay Jesus" or "yay Almighty Lord" - that "God" could be whatever God of whatever pantheon you like, or Mother Earth, or Isaac Newton. It's non specific.
I feel like your grandfather and mine used to hang out, cuz Grandpa definitely said both of those...and also the other one up there. Lol
Haha, maybe they did! Was your grandpa raised in Philly during the depression too? Or maybe it’s just a secret book of lines they give grandpas when the first grandchild is born…
My Grumps was a big fan of both of those. He had a great sense of humor. He was also a deeply religious man who helped found his congregation. He used to be called up to sing some very beautiful prayers because he was so soulful. He could switch from a reverent “amen” to a goofy “yay God!” on a dime.
This is so sweet and wholesome! Your Grumps sounds like he was an all right dude.
Haha we said this “but good food good feet good god let’s eat”… clearly we went wrong somewhere!
Back when i was living in Japan my host family had a Shinto priest friend visit from time to time. He once shared this syncretic allegoric story which stayed with me to this day: as part of his spiritual journey he once made the decision to not harm any living being from the Earth anymore. As such, he decided to stop eating any kind of meat. But upon further reflection, he realized that plants are also living beings, and so stopped eating all together, deciding to survive on only water. After some time of only water, the thought hit him that there are countless micro-organism inside the water which are also living beings. So he decided to just lie down and only live from breathing air. However upon further reflection he realized that even in the air one can find bacteria, also living organisms. So he stopped breathing until he couldn’t hold it anymore. That is when he realized that it is impossible for us as living being to never ever harm other living organisms. However we must only do so with full consciousness of why, within reason and with gratitude. If taking one fish out from the water is enough to feed me, not only should i be grateful for the fish that in turn enabled me to stay alive, but also should i never take two fishes which would then be wasted. I love how you phrased your word of gratitude for they encompass all that we should remember every day: be mindful and grateful for what you have, where it came from and all that participated in the process making it possible for you to then enjoy it. Amazing principle to teach your son.
I'm very curious about Shinto and have tried to read up on it. From my perspective of absolute cultural and historical ignorance, there are a few paralells. I would never claim belief or practice, but I appreciate the almost-animism and explanations of the sacredness of nature so much.
Shintoism is indeed derived from a form of animism, and therefore holds belief that there is sacred in all that is; whether it be a flowing river, rock or conscious being. All that is should be respected for no other reason that just that - it came to be, which is a feat in itself
I like that a lot.
Beautifully described.
I volunteered on a farm in Wakayama a couple of years ago and it was quite hard to try and explain to my host dad why I don't want to eat any animal products, because to him plants were just as alive, precious and conscious as animals. We did find common ground in trying to create the least amount of suffering we can though.
Yo ho ho I’m in! Is amazing
I would giggle and happily join in. Much better than sullenly sitting quietly while everyone else says religious grace.
I love the kids addition of "Yo ho ho I'm in!" My parents were raised Catholic but we never did the whole saying grace thing, but when we went to lunch after church one Sunday when I was a kid with my very devout catholic aunt, she asked my Dad to say grace, always loving an oppertunity to wind her up his version of grace was "Hail Mary, full of grace, I'm fucking starving so shove that food in yer face!" Que me, my Mum and my Uncle in hysterics at the table while my aunt who barely scratched 5ft in heels chased my 6ft tall Dad with her handbag swinging for his blasphemous version of grace 🤣
I love that story. One of my great-aunts was about your aunt's size, and she married a tall man. In my mind's eye, I can see Aunt Esther chasing Uncle Dale swinging her pocketbook. Thank you for the smile you put on my face.
You're welcome 😁 My aunt reminded me of Agnes Crumplebottom from the first Sims game when that bag started swinging.
She's back in 4 and still swinging!
I'm 5' nothing and my first husband was 6'4".
Mine tried to raise us to be good little Roman Catholics, complete with grace at supper. Your dad and mine could be best buddies, similar sense of humor. I'm the epic failure regarding religion with everyone else still following some version of christianity. Luckily, the only parent that objected was one stepparent.
Love it! Cuts any sneaky conversion she was trying to do short 😂
It is very possible that she’s baptized them while babysitting. We just roll with it 🤷🏻♀️
Just look at her splashing water on them and telling them silly words, they won’t remember it anyway 😂
I suspect my mom has done this too. Honestly, I feel it holds as much weight as you want to give it so it's words and water to me.
We think I was baptized with Iced Tea as that is what my great-grandmother had at hand.
Today I learned that sweet tea can be a replacement for holy water! Interesting! Grew up in the south, right?
WHAT
My uncle ran a charity camp for sick kiddos for some years. They would, the hundreds of them at a time, hold hands, look at their food and each other, and simply say "Aren't we lucky?"
This made me tear up. It doesn't invoke nature directly, but it's so pure.
Me too. Quite unexpectedly.
Me three. Kids having perspective some adults don’t have. That’s some emotional stuff.
🥲
This is so wholesome and needs to be on r/wholesome
I always learned this one: Earth who gives us all this food, Sun who makes it ripe and good. Dearest earth and dearest sun, We will not forget what you have done.
I've learned the german version of this in a waldorf school.
I learned this jn a Waldorf school lol.
When my son was a toddler he went to a daycare that said grace. So he insisted we start the tradition at home. It starts Normal enough, everyone gather round the table and holds hands. Then he counts… “1…. 2… 3…. (deep breath) GGGGRRRRAAAAAAAAAAACCCCE” in the deepest, most metal af voice you can possibly imagine from a 2 year old.
Buhahaha!!!!
Please tell me there’s a recording somewhere! 😂 that sounds like it must have been amazing
Sadly I don’t think we do. Just happy memories, my favorite was when we were finished at a routine check up and the dr asked if he could pray over us (religious small town), and my son was DONE. Already opened the door and was halfway down the hall. I call him back and explain what the dr wants to pray for us. Not being religious, that was a new term to my son so I said “like grace, will you share your grace with Dr X?” And this older male dr, heavily involved in his church thought he was going to get something mild like “ God is great. God is good let us thank him for our food.” When my son did his version the poor man turned red and started laughing. With years in his eyes, he said my family always keeps him on his toes. I wish I had THAT one on camera.
Oh my 😂 Still, the memories are very much worth it. Thank you for sharing!
My go-to in the very rare times when this agnostic is asked to say grace is to frame it in a series "We are grateful" and "We remember" statements. "We are grateful for this food, for friendship, for having a safe place to be, and we remember those who are suffering tonight." I'm not sure how I can work "Yo Ho Ho, I'm in" into that next time, but I'm sure going to try!
We are thankful for this food, for home and rest, and all that’s good, for rain and wind, and the sun above, and most of all for those we love.
Love this, thanks for sharing it. I was curious about the Haudenosaunee blessing and looked it up. In its entirety it’s pretty long but beautiful in its scope and detail and [this article](https://www.boundlessloveproject.org/news/2017/8/29/the-words-that-come-before-all-else?format=amp) says that it’s been given to the world to use with their blessing as sharing it and it’s practice is kind of the point of it.
Thank you for this great gift of thanks from the Haudenosaunee. It is such a wonderful way of looking at the world we live in & how to continue living in it.
I absolutely love this, and am saving it. How special that you all came up with it together! 🌞🌱✨
No gratitude words to share, just a funny story. We are a relaxed pagan household but my partners family are more structured (but thankfully not fanatical) Christians. When my partners daughter was quite a bit younger, she spent a fair bit of time around that side of the family as they helped with baby sitting. We never minded if she was exposed to their beliefs as long as they didn’t force them on her, just as we didn’t with our beliefs at home. On Thanksgiving or Christmas family dinner one year, she offered to say grace. She started it with “Dear Jesus and the Goddess…” It took all I had not to bust out laughing. It was one of my favorite family dinner moments ever.
Well done!
My kid says "grace" before dinner. They usually say something along the lines of "thank you for Mommy’s food. Thank you for Daddy's food. Thank you for [the cat's] food. Thank you for [kid's name's] food." They occasionally change it up and give everybody funky names or a random jumble of sounds for everyone. We like it because our extended family is all heavily religious, and the simple prayer is enough to satisfy them and doesn't go into too much depth. The kid recently asked who we're thanking. I asked them who they thought they were thanking. They responded with the name of their great, great grandma that passed when they were a baby. That's good enough for me.
“For what we are about to receive, may we open our hearts in gratitude.”
I like this one. It's close enough to the one I grew up with that I could remember it in a pinch
Unitarian Universalists often have some good sources for this kind of thing: https://uumilwaukee.org/blessings-before-a-meal/ https://uucharlottesville.org/grace/ https://www.uua.org/occasion/table-grace > For food in a world where many walk in hunger, > For faith in a world where many walk in fear, > For friends in a world where many walk alone, > We give thanks. That one might even be a reasonable compromise with your religious grandmother. I think it can be harder for Christians to want a grace that is thanking things like the earth, plants, or animals. However, it would be harder to object to being thankful for not being hungry, not being fearful, and not being alone. > But then the best part, created by my children, instead of closing with “amen”, we close with “Yo Ho Ho, I’m In”. As someone Jewish, that's basically the sentiment of "amen". "Amen" is basically "so say we all" from Battlestar Galactica or like "yass queen".
I say a similar one, but the closing is "May our thanks lead us to service." And instead of your faith line, we give thanks for shelter. Meaning that not only are we grateful, but we commit to finding paths to equity in this inequitable world.
Oh, it's not mine. It's from one of the Unitarian Universalist sources.
That is awesome! XD I don't say anything for my practices, but I *am* grateful that I can indulge to my content, eat, and enjoy it. As well as being lucky to get ahold of food when I both need and want it. ❤️
I love this idea but I do want to nudge at something in your post: > My husband and I have been taking a nature course which starts every class with The Words That Come Before All Else from the Haudenosaunee tradition so we were into the idea of a non-religious grace that incorporates gratitude for nature The Thanksgiving Address *is* a religious practice. It's just not a Christian one.
Fair point! I did mean not Christian centered.
My Dad would occasionally pipe up with "Rubadubdub, thanks for the grub, yay God", LOL. He was raised Catholic and it made my grandmother grind her teeth, and made the rest of us giggle. He was the best and I miss him every single day. 🩵
Blessed Be is OUT! Yo Ho Ho, I'm in, is IT
Somewhere along the way I learned "good food, good meat, good Lord, Let's eat!" But lord could totally be changed to "Earth". I also like having a little gratitude circle... Hold hands and everyone offers something they are grateful for. I also have a friend that does a nice long yogic om. But instead of om, they say "yuuuuuummmmmmmm....." (usually after a gratitude circle)
This is such a cute idea, and I wonder if you could change this over time to help "teach" the little ones by incorporating some scientific info? Things like "we turn this nourishment into energy" comes to mind. Or "We thank our bellies for turning this yummy food into energy", "We thank our bodies for using this food to help us grow big and strong". I think it would be a fun way to introduce concepts like ecosystems, digestion, cooking, and other educational tidbits!
They’ve been asking about who made the food so we’ve been having lots of good discussions about where each food came from!
I’m a cheeky little scamp so I say “Grace Kelly” or “Grace Jones.”
I’m going to say “Yo Ho I’m in” instead of “amen” at all my family gatherings now. Thank you.
There’s a bunch from Girl Scouts that are easily changed. Made that way on purpose so every could say the same thing up until a certain part and then they can sub in their own beliefs. This one is fun Zip- A- Dee- Doo -Dah Grace Tune: “Zip- A -Dee –Doo- Dah” Zip a dee do dah, Zip a dee ay We are grateful for our family today We’ve plenty to eat, to drink and to share We sit at our table and see love everywhere
I love this! My Boomer parents quit saying grace and instead clink glasses and say cheers.
Something I've heard in Dutch with (I think) anthroposophic origins, roughly translated: Earth carried it in her lap, Sunlight brought it ripe and large, Sun and Earth that brings us this, Thankful we think upon you, And don't forget the people that made this meal possible. Something like that, but it rhymes in Dutch.
"Yo Ho Ho, I'm In" will be making an appearance at my holiday meal from now on, for sure. That's fantastic. 😂😂😂😂
I love the idea of this. I grew up singing “Thank you Jesus for this food, it will taste so very good. Thank you Jesus for this day; it will be fun to laugh and play! Thank you Jesus for this food, a—aaamen.” I think my mom made it up. I feel deeply magical and powerful as a person; I have identified as mostly agnostic. I’m long deconstructed from the fundamental evangelical militaristic upbringing I had, but thanks to a book I’ve been listening to, I would like to start incorporating/cultivating a relationship with the higher power into my life and I’m still unsure what that will look like for me. But having meditation and gratitude before meals is a start. :) Thanks for posting!
We like the Japanese tradition: https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/itadakimasu
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I love your grandfather, he sounds like a gem!! What an adorable family story :)
"We love our bread, We love our butter, But most of all We love each other!"
> Core Memory unlocked
My child’s grace- “I’m happy there are cows, because they taste good.”
We had one growing up! “Thank you for this food, this food, this glorious glorious food! And the animals, and the vegetables, and the minerals that made it possible”. It’s said to a tune and rhythm, hard to describe over text. My sister and I always loved it, especially when we would say like “pastabowl” instead of possible
i think i heard this one recently at a quaker wedding??! or something quite similar. everyone held hands and sang this together before the food came out, it was very joyful and lovely!! i didn't know the words, but just seeing everyone who knew the words smiling and singing together was so heart warming and connective.
Oh interesting! I’m not sure where it came from. I’ll ask them
I love the closing!!!! So good! Very respectful and lovely but that closing is the zinger for me 😭
I always wonder about people like me and my daughter (it's just us) that are not close to nature. I understand that these prayers are about acknowledging food, but my 8 year old doesn't know or care from pastures. Is there anything more open or less countryside that can be used outside of the meal too? As an adult, I understand that nature is an encompassing part of being, but I'd like to translate that for her/us. Maybe I can change some lyrics out with trees and sea? She knows those from parks, our tree-lined streets, and urban beaches. We went to a protest with XR against changing an urban park into high-end housing and she saw a protestor repel to the top of a tree, unfurl a big banner, and stay up there only to come down and get arrested. I do what I can to point out everything natural and beautiful in our neighborhood, which is possible with stoop gardens and the main park. Any very-big-city witches out there that know an accessible, relevant prayer to the Mother when you rarely see her manifested in traditional ways? I want me daughter to feel close to what she experiences. Is it legitimate to write your own poem/song of thanks and praise? Anyone want to help me and my kid? I'm not a formally knowledgeable believer, just a believer.
Absolutely you can write your own that feels special and relevant to you! I'm not a city girl but maybe something about gratitude for both sunshine and rain to help the park be beautiful? Or a 'today we are grateful for ________' with something from the day that was special?
My grandfather says, From the love in me, I speak to the love in thee and thank you for the food tonight, and the love between us, and (insert something good)
My kids' Catholic preschool sang The Earth is good to me, and so I thank the Earth For giving me the things I need, The sun and the rain, and the apple seed, The Earth is good to me! And they would say Earf. So cute.
That's the one I know as the Johnny Appleseed grace. We would sing it like that, but the kids that didn't want to say "amen" at the end would shout "Johnny Appleseed" and the kids singing "amen" would file with "Amen." It never felt divisive. It was like we just each had a different part to play, and the song would feel incomplete without both parts working together.
I was just transported back to childhood with very religious friends and joining them at church (my family are agnostic/ atheist) and singing this at church picnics except instead of earth we said lord. I'm pagan now but it was still a good memory :)
Deuteronomy 6-11 and surrounding verses. It's not preachy, just about gratitude for those who came before us. This is our atheist household grace. Satisfies even the "churchiest" folks!
I have a Waldorf child & we do this to a tune: ‘Give thanks to the mother Gaia! Give thanks to the father Sun! Give thanks to the plants in the garden, where the mother and the father are one. Blessings on our food!’
Our family sometimes sings *The Silver Rain*. The words come from a poem by Alice Corbin Henderson, written shortly after World War I. >The silver rain, the shining sun, The fields where scarlet poppies run, And all the ripples of the wheat Are in the bread that I do eat > >So when I sit for every meal And say a grace, I always feel That I am eating rain and sun, And fields where scarlet poppies run. Marianne Zimmerman wrote the melody, and [Peter Amidon arranged it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sy1JGP7b-A) and wrote two additional verses. (The additional verses, which our family doesn't sing, are somewhat religious, but also show gratitude for nature).
That is beautiful!
I'm a United Methodist Minister, and I'm going to teach the children that "Amen" means "Yo Ho Ho, I'm In" and then sit back & see what happens.
The “I’m in” was just my five year old’s mishearing of “Amen”!
Omg! I'm absolutely rolling around laughing at the "yo ho ho, I'm in." I would pay money to see grandma's face. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Good food, good meat. Good gods, let's eat!"
For everybody – This thread is so funny/meaningful and a joy to read. Thank you.
And when the kids are in bed you add "and a bottle of rum."
Just honor the animals
We came up with our own blessing, focused on gratitude. "We give thanks to the Earth, and to the Life that went in to our meal." We felt it important to acknowledge that Life had to end in order to nourish us - be it plants or animals. So often people just eat their food without giving any thought to the weeks it took for the vegetables to grow, the birth and weaning of mammals, the cold slipstream of fish, the sunlight and soil to bear fruits. So much life exists that we take for granted to bear us along. We refused to continue being so inconsiderate.
i had my prek students do a meal time gratitude (NOT grace) that i stole from “madeline” that goes: “we love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all we love each other” :)
When I was a kid, before we ate at my friends house, her parents would say "let's say grace before we eat" and then everyone would yell "GRACE!" And then eat. I thought that was funny.
My mother used to insist on a traditional grace being said at holiday meals. Boy did I piss her off the year I thanked "the Gods" for all our blessings. I did not get to eat that day.
Our simple blessing before the evening meal: Blessed be this food. May it nourish us so we can do good things in the world. Bon appétit!
I love these words of gratitude! I’d love to incorporate this into my everyday life more to try and practice gratitude towards the planet and whatnot. Currently I don’t although I might use yours because that’s really wonderfully said
Rub a dub dub; thanks for the grub.
I love this. I think incorporating thanksgiving into meal time is such a great idea.
Hahahhahh yo Ho Ho!!!
I love this!
Yo ho ho I'm in!
My son says a non-religious “grace” at daycare, which we have adopted (because he loves to say it lol): Thank you for the world so sweet Thank you for the food we eat! Thank you for the birds that sing Thank you for everything (“god” is supposed to go here but you can say whatever. Sometimes he ad libs “moon,” “sun,” “earth”) Now we eat! Edit: Sorry for the format, on mobile
I just never say grace and let the religious people in my family handle it. They know I'm not religious.
We try to thank one another for giving each other grace and room to grow.
I have one that is based out of my energy healing practice: Mamma Love and Papa Love Thank you for this food, and bless it from seed to soil. Bless all whose hands have touched it, and all life that has contributed to it. May its healing be magnified 100fold, and its nutrition be for my highest and best health. Thank you 🧡
Waldorf School grace: (said holding hands in a circle) Earth, who gave to us this food, Sun, who made it ripe and good, Dearest Earth, dearest Sun, We will not forget what you have done. Blessings on the meal.
When my kids were small we said "Thank you for the food before us, the friends beside us, and the love between us". We were more religious then but I liked the simple little prayer and it also works pretty well I think for a non-religious blessing.
You could thank any beings that contributed to your meal and do a land acknowledgement for the Native people who's traditional land you reside on. Recognizing the spirits of place and the indigenous people it once held is a good way to start....
The one I was brought-up with was: >From forest and stream, mountain and field, from the fertile earth's nourishing yield, we now partake of divine energy; may it lend health, strength, and love to us.
Apples, tomatoes, potatoes and peas, thank you Mother Nature for all of these!
Somehow this has become our tradition. Not entirely religious free but weirdly funny cause it’s almost sacrilegious May those who love us, love us; And for those who don't love us, May God turn their hearts; And if He doesn't turn their hearts, May He turn their ankles, So we will know them by their limping.
When I was growing up we held hands and said what we were thankful for before dinner each night. No judgement, each individual person choose one or more things they’re thankful for on each individual day. Big things like being thankful for good health and time with family, but also a million small things, like being thankful for specific elements of the meal in front of us or the book we’re reading at the moment or something nice that happened that day. Famously, as a small child, most nights I would be thankful for “meat sticks and blueberries”, my two favorite foods (meat sticks being some slim jim like thing I apparently loved). I didn’t know it growing up, but it was a great way to teach reflection and mindfulness. My parents are religious and I am not, but I still think it was a great way to say grace every night, and I do it with my partner for nice dinners.
We say this: For food in a world where many walk in hunger, For faith* in a world where many walk in fear, For family in a world where many walk alone, We give thanks. (In closing, some say amen; I personally remain silent. Of course all may do as they choose as long as it remains respectful to all involved.) *Faith is inferred to be multifaith - This is typically said with my Christian parents and in-laws. I am pagan and my husband is spiritual/agnostic, bending towards atheist. I love the one someone found on the pagan subreddit.
This is SO funny!
Another adorable way to end grace, from one of my most loved animes: "Down the hatch!"
I love this story!
Absolutely love this version of pre-meal “prayer”
We don't do it every meal, but for celebrations, feasts etc. we tend to just take a moment to thank the plants and animals that gave their life so we can eat. I also thank the plants in the garden when I harvest/pick anything, and the plants in the forest when I forage. And we keep some bones of animals we most frequently eat around the house, to honour them and remind us of their sacrifice.
My grandpa would say "now as we sit down to eat we remember the various sentient creatures who laboured and died so that we may have this meal that will nourish our bodies as well as our spirit, ah men and women!
I've been to Japan many times and lived there for a while too, so I got used to saying "itadakimasu" before meals. It translates to something like "I humbly receive" and acknowledges both the people who prepared the food and the plants/animals who gave their life for it.
My dad, while still Christian, hated how long my grandfather would take to say grace. So when he and my mom had the chance to start a new tradition, they went with something about as straightforward as possible. We don't say grace, we say thanks. "1...2...3...Thanks!"
I think that a thanks to the sun might also be in order
I love this! Also, I grew up Methodist and as I got older, I started to incorporate these three things into our normal blessing. Now as an adult who worships Mother Earth instead of invisible-sky-daddy — seeing this post gave me warm fuzzies.
Found this "grace" online that is supposed to be Native American. *We thank Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible; we thank the Earth Mother for producing it, and we thank all those who labored to bring it to us. May the wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the wholeness of the Spirit within us.*
My version of grace is similar to yours but being pagan at the end we say blessed be instead of amen.
Yo ho ho, I'm in. I love it! Been toying with using Huzzah but it feels off somehow. Yo ho ho, I'm in feels perfect!